Gearboxes

Most industrial gearboxes come from the OEM with little more than a fill port, drain port and level plug or dipstick. Sometimes the fill port doubles as an air vent, which is required due to thermal expansion and contraction while others use a spring loaded check valve designed to relieve excess pressure during operations.

While these simple access points are necessary to allow for basic maintenance tasks such as level checks, top-offs or oil changes, they do a poor job of excluding external contamination from entering the oil sump. Did you know that 79% of all gearbox failures are due to lubrication-related issues? To avoid contamination-related breakdowns and thus, costly downtime, a few simple upgrades and modifications can effectively isolate gearboxes from the outside environment, maintaining a completely closed system while promoting lubrication best practices whether the gearbox is running or shut down.

For large gearboxes, oil life and equipment reliability can be further extended with filtration. Using the same quick connect adapters
used for filling and draining, portable or permanent filtration can be used to remove contaminants.